How to pay your CFE-IFER tax - Avis de cotisation CFE

You may have received an email from Direction Générale des Finances Publiques asking you to validate and pay your Contribution Fonciere des Entreprises (CFE). This is not a spam and you need to take some time to go and validate this tax on your business impots account. If you have not created a professional impot account yet (this is not related to your personal income tax account), you have until the 30th November to do so. Your CFE bill should be available on your impots account by 16th November 2018.

What is Contribution Fonciere des Entreprises (CFE)?

Contribution Fonciere des Entreprises (CFE) is a small tax paid by all businesses to their local authorities and collected by the tax office. You benefit from a CFE exoneration for your first year in business, but must pay it every year after that. The exoneration is based on a calendar year. So, if you registered your French business in January or November 2018, the exoneration will be for 2018 and CFE will be due in December 2019.

How much does CFE cost?

The minimum CFE amount is determined by the municipalities and EPCI (Etablissement Public de Cooperation Intercommunale). The minimum CFE rate applicable on 1st January 2017 is split up into 6 categories based on the business turnover:

Less than €10,000 HT (without TVA) – CFE from €216 to €514

From €10,000 to €32,600 – CFE from €216 to €1,027

From €32,600 to €100,000 – CFE from €216 to €2,157

From €100,000 to €250,000 – CFE from €216 to €3,596

From €250,000 to €500,000 – CFE from €216 to €5,136

Above €500,000 – CFE from €216 to €6,678

CFE exoneration in 2019 for small businesses

The good news is that small businesses with a turnover below 5,000€ per year, will be exonerated from CFE in 2019.

Deadlines to declare and pay your CFE tax

You need to create your professional impots account by 30th November 2018.

Your CFE tax will be posted on your account on the 16th November at the latest.

Your CFE bill must be paid by 18th December 2018.

How to create your account to pay your CFE

This step needs to be done by 30th November if you want to be able to pay your CFE tax in time.

How to add your bank details to pay your CFE tax

The ergonomy of Impot's website is not great and you sometimes have to keep going back and forth, looking for some information. Adding your bank details to pay your CFE Tax is the toughest part! Here is how to add your bank account to pay your tax. The validated amount will be taken at the end of December 2018.

I've been helping people who want to start or already have a small business set up in France since 2009. After graduating from a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree, I worked as a senior marketing consultant in the UK and France for various International companies. I worked as a conseillère en création d'entreprises (senior business advisor) for BGE here in France and run this independent business on a daily basis.